Georgia on My Mind, As 2020 Election Careens Toward a Final End

by Phillip Journey

Opinon

Red Wave of the National Rifle Association
Georgia on My Mind, As 2020 Election Careens Toward a Final End

USA – -(AmmoLand.com)- The dust of the 2020 election has yet to completely settle.

Despite this fact, several things have become apparent. On the whole, the blue wave happened. The voter pool expanded to record levels nationally. President Trump received more votes than any previous candidate. In 2016 he won with fewer votes than Mitt Romney lost with.

Vice President Joe Biden is declared to have won with an election total of votes cast that is an all-time high. A friend on the Republican National Committee said that one the party’s best efforts came from the Trump rallies and other activities yielding 5 million Republican/ Trump supporters who weren’t registered to vote. Republicans had a ground game with over 1 million volunteers. In the week before November 3rd, they knocked on doors and called voters who were favorable to republicans in an unparalleled “Get out the Vote” effort.

This was the Red Reef the Blue Wave crashed against dissipating into nearly a complete failure.

Nationally, Democrats outspent Republicans 2 to 1. In most US Senate races Republican candidates were outspent 4 to 1 or higher. Sen. Mitch McConnell recognized the blue advantage with small-dollar donors. Act Blue, the democrat PayPal worked infinitely better than the republican alternative WinRed. The weekend after the passing of Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg, Act Blue raised over 100 million. My experience in my campaign with WinRed was a parade of frustration and bad coding.

Flawed/Biased Polls

Polling generally models sample selection on the universe of individuals who have voted in the past. Unregistered citizens and newly registered voters are excluded from the sample taken by polling. When the 5 million newly registered voters are added to their likely coattails, with their family and friends, we have a reasonable contributor to the wildly inaccurate polling we saw nationwide. Two days before the election Democratic leadership in the House predicted expanding their majority by up to 20 seats. Two days after the election Speaker Pelosi hosted a private democratic caucus. Caucus Chair Rep. Hakeem Jefferies repeatedly told members not to leak the meeting’s contents. Their behavior proved the value of the advice to never get between a member of Congress and a reporter or a camera.

The biblical description of that meeting could be, “there was a great wailing and gnashing of teeth”. At that time, it was known that Republicans defeated 6 with dozens of House races yet to be decided.

So far, five are defeated freshmen, one term wonders, they were elected for only 1 term and most wonder why. The Chair of the Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee (DCCC) Rep. Cheri Bustos, (Ill.) said, “Something went wrong”. She blamed incorrect modeling extrapolating the polling promising a deep dive into their shortcomings.

She went on to say, ”We protected the lone firewall in our democracy. Now hopefully and probably …we are now in a position to put our priorities into action…”

They fail to recognize they had an intelligence failure, like so many other parts of their lives.

Like their Republican counterparts they began their circular firing squad. Both parties can be described as the division between pragmatists and purists. The pragmatists are described in the media as “moderates” and the purists are the progressives of the Democratic Party.  Rep. Spanberger, (Va.), a pragmatist, narrowly won re-election. In the meeting, she complained about her progressive colleagues who embraced the “defund the police” movement and did not push back against the accusations of socialism. (They embraced the label.) She went on to say, if Democrats didn’t recognize the election results as a failure and change strategy they would be “f**king crushed” in future elections. Speaker Pelosi replied, ”I disagree Abigail…we won the House”.

That’s like Gen. Robert E. Lee saying after Gettysburg he was successful because he still had an army. The shrinking of the majority complicates and reduces her ability to pass legislation.

Defeated Rep. Debbie Mucarsel-Powell (Fla.) a freshman, cried and blamed the reality, no one could pronounce her name. While there have been rumblings in the Democratic Caucus of electing a new Speaker, just like a few years ago. The reality is Pelosi has the power to coerce and punish members and there is no viable opponent.

Congresswoman Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (NY) disputes her leadership’s interpretation, arguing it is unfair to blame policies including defunding the police, the green new deal and Medicare for all for losses, she said the fault lies out of date spending strategies by her leadership, PACs and candidates.

Between now and January 5, 2021 the Democrats will be all platitudes and unicorns.

VP Biden has not said “BINGO” for some time. Gun control is not part of the 4 pillars of his transition team. (AmmoLand News has uncovered other evidence) Rep. James Clyburn (SC) in the caucus meeting recognized the need to overcome the BLM and defund the police backlash. That Democrats, have to deemphasize their far-left policies that alienate key parts of the electorate. He advised his party caution in choosing talking points because the majority in the US Senate is yet to be determined. Today if NC and Alaska numbers hold the Senate will have 50 republicans, 46 democrats, and 2 independents who caucus with Democrats. Both Georgia Senate races appear to be headed to a runoff election Jan. 5. Georgia Law requires a candidate who does not get 50% plus 1 to stand for election again in a two-way runoff election. Rep. Clyburn recognized that if Sen. Charles Schumer is to become Majority Leader in the US Senate, Democrats have to win both Georgia seats for there to be a 50/50 split and the Vice President can break the tie. If that scenario happens, Democrats who now are Dr. Jekyll will morph into Mr. Hyde.

The Washington Post’s Jennifer Rubin on MSNBC on 8/25/2019 echoed progressives’ belief that the entire Republican Party had to be burned down and no survivors could be left. Make no mistake the concept of the value of a loyal opposition has been tossed on the ash heap.

The Black Flag has been raised.

Just as Pelosi has not had a meaningful conversation with the President since she tore up his speech, Schumer and McConnell only address their counterpart in tweets and media quotes. The US Senate was once the greatest deliberative body in the world. It procedurally had guardrails requiring bipartisan effort to get things done. One of those guardrails is called the filibuster and requires 60 votes to advance a question to final vote. Schumer, the comedian’s uncle, and McConnell, when they each were Majority Leader removed those guardrails one at a time. Schumer during the Obama presidency eliminated the 60 vote requirement for federal trial judges and McConnell did the same in turn for federal appellant judges. They eliminated the 60 vote requirement to go to final action for Senate confirmation. After Justice Barrett’s confirmation, Schumer promised to eliminate the 60 vote rule to advance legislation. Advancing legislation to a final vote with a simple majority, 50 plus the VP, would make the Senate operate like the US House. Legislation from the House would shoot out of the Senate and onto the president’s desk.

One curious observation of the postelection cacophony no one is talking about 2nd amendment issues. There has been no recognition that NRA members in the final weeks opened their wallets and funded millions in contributions and independent expenditures by the NRA-PVF and the NRA-PVF super pac. NRA created their best productions ever. Running spots in critical races providing the margin for victory to Republicans. The ads, NRA member rallies, mailers, and grassroots efforts were effective. Many are still available on YouTube, some effectively use humor while others ring the alarm of the potential for anti-2A legislation and executive action. Donations to NRA-PVF may only be spent in compliance with Federal Election Commission rules.

Anti-biden

McSally

To protect the 2A, Democrats must be forced to recognize that supporting gun control is still a 3rd rail in politics.

They must see that they have sacrificed all they hold dear, single-payer Medicare, increasing the minimum wage, abortion rights, social justice, Climate change, DACA, immigration reform, and criminal justice reform, etc. on the altar of Bloomberg. They have traded the symbolism of gun control for substantive policy change. In 1993 President Clinton’s pollster said Democrats would not lose a single seat in Congress with the Semi-Auto Ban. We all know what happened in 1994. The highest NRA rated Democrat in the US Senate is a “D”, that is Sen. Manchin, (W. Va.). He lamented on “Face the Nation” 11-8-2020, “They (voters) went from being mad to being scared in 2020. The so-called radical left… basically scared the bejeezus out of people.” He went on to exclaim the socialist label is…”an albatross around their necks.” If just 1 or 2 Democrat candidates in Midwest or western States were “A” rated we could have been facing a different and far more difficult reality. Democrats have with blind rage eliminated conservative “Blue Dog” Democrats from their ranks. They have driven many of them to the Republican Party. It has happened in Kansas and across fly-over country. In their eyes, we are still “a basket of deplorables”. Getting them to see the 2A tree in the forest won’t be easy. Both parties will post-mortem the election and we have one chance to make that case.

The Georgia Line

Georgia State Flag
Georgia State Flag

We all know what is at stake. Georgia is the holding action on the battlefield so we have the opportunity to regroup and prepare for 2022 elections. The majority in the US Senate is a 2nd line of defense in the struggle over the 2A. The Supreme Court is the last. Failure to maintain the current majority will deliver the means to Sen. Schumer to breach the last line of defense. He and his fellow Democrats will pack the Supreme Court with additional Justice positions to be filled by Biden nominees that can be confirmed by 50+ the VP votes.

With only 56 days until the runoff election. Georgia has 2 US Senate races that will decide whether Schumer or McConnell will lead their majorities. One race is the re-election of Sen. David Perdue who faces journalist Jon Ossoff. That race is seen as leaning Republican. There is also the race where incumbent Republican Sen. Kelly Loeffler is seeking to fill the remaining unexpired term of her seat. Loeffler squares off against pastor Raphael Warnock of the Ebenezer Baptist Church where MLK and his father preached. That race is seen as leaning blue. Kelly Lynn Loeffler was appointed by Governor Brian Kemp assuming office 01/06/2020. She finished a distant 2nd November 3rd. If Republicans can win that race they will win both as ticket splitters are becoming an endangered political species. The distinction between the candidates is a reflection of their parties’.

Nearly 3 months ago I wrote here on AmmoLand News asking if you were “All In” on this election and after that how important these Senate races were. I wrote about where the battlegrounds were and how to join the fight.

Does anyone think it is time to put our tails between our legs and go home to lick our wounds? Or is this the final leg of the marathon when it is time to pour it on. In the race to this finish can we break the tape?

These races will not be won strictly by an airwar of out of state money on TV and radio. It like so many races will be won one vote at a time with repeated and personal contact.
Persuasion may take the form of persuading them to vote for a particular candidate or to just get to the polls.

Things you can do to make a difference:

Donate NOW!!!

NRA-PVF is ready, their track record at ILA demonstrates they are the only effective way to elect pro-2A candidates. Gun owners have another opportunity to flex their collective political muscle. If you wait 4 weeks it will be too late.

  • Donate Directly to the campaigns or the National Republican Senatorial Committee (NRSC)are other options. ActBlue is strangely quiet.
  • Volunteer communicate with the campaign
  • You don’t have to live in Georgia to call someone there.

If you live in Georgia or near you can work on signs or deliver door to door you can learn about the candidates and work to persuade your friends, co-workers and family.

This is our last opportunity to teach Democrats and Republicans that the 2nd Amendment is the 3rd Rail in politics and make it obvious who licked it.

A final thought Minority Leader Sen. Schumer has twice before, in 2016 and 2018 sought to elect a majority and they came up short. If Georgia doesn’t elect 2 democrats, Schumer will have 3 strikes. They will know that Schumer’s predictions and prognostications were illusory and only led to defeat. Senators have more individual power and are collectively more nimble than their counterparts in the House. While I would rather face the devil I know, I would enjoy watching him go to the back bench too. The land of Biden may become a desert devoid of meaningful accomplishments as Democrats wander in the desert of McConnell after worshiping at the Idol of gun control. They will await their collective fate in 2022.

Phillip Journey is running for the 2020 NRA Board of Directors.Phillip Journey was NRA’s political activist of the year in 1993. He helped write NRA’s 1st grassroots manual has worked in over 100 campaigns at the local and state level. Phil served in the Kansas Senate and is now running for re-election to his 4th term as Judge in the largest city in his State and faces a general election opponent. He was recently elected to the NRA Board and will be sworn in after the Tucson meeting.

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